>The Eisgrube (Eis = Ice: Grube= Pit) in Mainz fulfilled the same function as an icehouse (Check out Minette Walters’ thriller by the same name – it’s excellent).

It was built in 1872, just below the Zitadelle in the Weissliliengasse, dug into the hill to provide storage for the ice that the city needed in summer.

Meantime Carl von Linde invents mechanical refrigeration in 1871.

Bad timing, guys, bad timing…

Share prices for ice storage and distribution companies crash.

Fast forward to 1989 and the opening of Die Eisgrub (“e” tend to get lost in the Mainz dialect..), the only (the ONLY…?) brew-pub/microbrewery in Mainz.

I’ve always liked the place and the beer’s quite excellent, but I’ve always missed the opportunity to buy some for home consumption.

No longer.

Enter the “Eisgrub Flasch” (See what I mean about the self-destructing “e”…?)

You buy it for €2 and get a litre of freshly drawn beer – light or dark, although I’m sure they’d mix it if you asked nicely..) for a mere €3.

Keeps for a few days, they claim, but it didn’t get much of a chance to prove it…

16 Oct This entry was published on 16 October, 2007 at 07:01. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged eisgrub, Zitadelle. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.